Argentine tennis player Marco Trungelliti claimed the Rwanda Challenger 100 title after defeating Italy’s Marco Cecchinato in a hard-fought final watched by Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame.
Trungelliti secured the trophy with a 2–1 sets victory (4–6, 6–0, 6–3) in the final played on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the IPRC Kigali Ecology Tennis Club in Kigali.
The tournament is part of the Rwanda Challenger, an international professional tennis competition organized under the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour. The event forms part of the African Tennis Tour, a regional circuit that also features tournaments in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo.
Trungelliti reached the final after eliminating Czech player Zdenek Kolar in the semifinals, while Cecchinato booked his place in the decisive match by defeating France’s Arthur Gea.
The Rwanda Challenger 2026 tournament ran for two weeks, from March 2 to March 15, bringing together professional tennis players from across the world. The first week featured the ATP Challenger 75 tournament, while the second week hosted the ATP Challenger 100, awarding 75 and 100 ATP ranking points respectively.
In total, the two competitions attracted 66 players from 20 different countries, reflecting the growing prominence of Kigali as a destination for international tennis.
By winning the title, Trungelliti also made history by becoming the first player to win the Rwanda ATP Challenger tournament twice. He previously lifted the trophy in 2024 when the competition was first hosted in Rwanda as the ATP Challenger 50 event, which awarded 50 ranking points.
Currently ranked 132nd in the world, Trungelliti entered the tournament as the highest-ranked player in the draw. He was followed by Arthur Gea, ranked 161st globally, and Croatia’s Luka Mikrut, ranked 165th.
Rwanda hosted both the ATP Challenger 75 and ATP Challenger 100 tournaments for the second consecutive year, after successfully staging the same competitions in 2025.
The first week of Rwanda Challenger 2026, which offered 75 ATP points and $17,000 in prize money, was won by Austria’s Joel Schwaerzler. The 20-year-old defeated Italy’s Stefano Napolitano in straight sets, 7–6(5), 7–6(6), to claim the title.
